The present invention relates to a covering and protecting device for machinery.
The invention can be used for many industrial applications and relates in particular to a covering and protecting device comprising a surface designed to cover and protect a channel of an automatic machine or machine tool.
In the present specification, reference is made, without restricting the scope of the invention, to covering and protecting devices in which said surface is a walk-on surface designed to cover and protect a channel made in the bottom of the bed of an automatic machine or machine tool.
The bed of a large piece of machinery usually has one or more channels made in the bottom of it forming respective guides for moving parts or devices of the machine. These channels are often covered and protected by devices in which the walk-on surface consists of a roll up guard formed of a continuous stainless steel belt.
During operation of the machine, the mobile device or part moves along the channel, rolling up or unrolling the belt as it does so in such a way as to close the top of the channel not only to protect the contents of the channel, for example from shavings, swarf, liquids, and other process materials, but also to allow the operator to safely walk or stand on the channel.
Instead, when the machine is not working, the belt may be rolled up to uncover the channel so as to allow maintenance to be carried out on the parts inside.
To confer strength and good load-bearing capacity on the above mentioned walk-on guard, the steel belt is supported on the underside of it by a plurality of rigid, modular, transversal bars positioned side by side and fixed to the belt on the other side of the guard. Each bar has a long central body with a U-shaped cross section, and two lateral wings running lengthways alongside the central body. In other terms, the central body has a flat rectangular wall, from which two flat rectangular walls forming the sides of the bar extend at right angles, and the lateral wings have flat rectangular surfaces which extend outwards at right angles to the sides of the bar body and which are designed to be attached by means of adhesive and/or rivets to the belt on the side opposite the walk-on surface.
The bars are fixed to the belt at defined intervals, leaving a suitable spacing between them, in such a way as to enable the belt to be rolled up.
The disadvantage of a device of this kind is that its construction is complex and expensive. Moreover, the belt tends to wear easily on account of the continual rolling and unrolling. This, after a time, gives rise to warping in the parts of the belt located between consecutive bars and may even cause some of the bars to come away from the belt.
The aim of the present invention is to provide covering and protecting device that overcomes the disadvantages described above with reference to the prior art.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a covering and protecting device for machinery, said device being of the type that comprises: at least one covering and protecting surface; a plurality of long modular elements positioned side by side, each modular element having a central body, a first protrusion and a second protrusion both extending lengthways alongside the central body on opposite sides of it; and connecting means between each consecutive pair of modular elements designed to connect the first protrusion of one modular element to the second protrusion of the other modular element; wherein said first and second protrusions of two consecutive modular elements have overlapping ends; the connecting means being positioned between said ends; each of the modular elements forming a corresponding portion of the surface; the portions being positioned side by side in contact with each other to make the surface substantially uninterrupted.
Each portion is preferably formed by the central body and by at least the first or the second protrusion of each modular element.